Buttons: an Experiment With Cheese

About: I'm an experimentalist, a scientist and I have a tendency to do things just for the sake of doing them, or to find out what they're like. I love life, show me something I can feel good about. I've got an ...
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Supplies:

Step 1: Preparation

Considering the different formats, I decided to cut slices ~1/4 inch thick, and 3/4 inch wide.The width of the strip was the only consistent accurate measurement, and would serve as a shrinkage point of reference.The Boursin being mushy couldn't be cut, so it was spread onto a strip of plastic pizza-base.

Step 2: Drying

I gave these a few hours outside in the breeze, under a sieve. However I did return to find the sieve displaced and the Edam gone, so I had to cut that one again.Then I gave them a gentle warming with the fan-heater that warms my toes at night. This caused the cheese to "sweat" grease, which was blotted with kitchen-towel (paper).

The cycle was repeated: sun & breeze during the day, warm air in the evening, over 7 days.

BoursinHard to tell, as something mushy there wasn't any apparent loss of width, it was the thickness that diminished. However since it started plastered on a strip of packaging it's not that suprising.

Mini Babybel OriginalFormed a bit of a crust, not a nice finish, shrunk to 9/16" 75%

Mini Babybel Cheddar VarietyLike the original it formed a bit of a crust, but more so, shrunk to 19/32" 79%

Red LeicesterDried the best (and quickest) finishing at 9/16" 75%

Step 3: Button Making

I built a circular-cutter around a Dremel-a-like bit with some steel sheet (sardine-can). The edge was roughed-up with a file and I mounted it in a cordless-drill.

Edam, Red Leicester & Austrian Smoked Processed Cheese were the hardest, producing fine cheese swarf.Due to being a bit "crusty" the Babybel cheeses were a bit "chewy" in the middle. For this reason the crusty-bits were sliced off with a knife and all the button-blanks were dried further by the same process.Boursin, as you might expect was rather soft, no real drilling required.

The blanks were then thinned to 3/32" with sandpaper, the edges smoothed and two holes drilled (1/16"). The drilling did for the Boursin - it broke: out of the contest. The Red Leicester split along a natural fault line and had to be cut again.

Step 4: Cheese Buttons!

Yes you can make buttons from cheese.

I sewed these to an old pair of trousers, then using an old shirt-cuff and a bag, loaded each with 2 litres of water. All but the Babybel (original) held the weight, although the Babybel button only broke as I was unloading it.

The best cheese is Edam:Smooth texture, hardens well and machines well

The processed smoked stuff comes second for the same reasons as Edam, but as it isn't really cheese it can't come first.

Red Leicester is a great cheese for drying and machining, but does have natural cracks in the texture which must be avoided.

The Babybels do not dry well

Boursin is just mush - not enough mechanical stability

Having left these for a couple of months they went a bit soft & crumbly - so I'd recommend a coat of varnish / lacquer.

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68 Discussions

Thank you for this great Instructable! Not only is it pleasantly obnouxious and funny (i had to leave the room to stop laughing!), it is also potentially very useful and delicious in case of any real or imaginary apocalyptic events in the future.

As I understand it the cheese which was hardest and was considered so inedible as to be used for buttons was Suffolk Cheese which is fine fresh but degenerates into what is very close to casein - which is as I'm sure you know the very first form of plastic.